Prometheus and Vivian continued their search through the forest when they came upon a large open field of carnage. Tall, old trees that had possibly stood for countless generations had been reduced to mere splinters of wood. The scenery itself held a lingering presence of the frost that had eradicated it.
Prometheus glanced at Vivian. Her breathing had slowly become laboured. Even though she tried to hide it, he could see through the brave posture and stern eyes. They had covered a large amount of distance from the town's back gate, but the sword saint still hadn't been found.
The sound of rushing water came faintly, but clear. He looked past the chaos-ridden field; there was a river just ahead. For some reason, the currents rippled above the surface, but he didn't think much of it.
They had to search the field before moving forward.
"I'll look through the left, you take the other part," he voiced out while looking at Vivian.
She gave a curt nod and walked towards the right side of the mutilated trees to begin her search. Prometheus turned towards the left and walked forward, his eyes scanning through each broken stump of wood thoroughly.
But he couldn't shake off the feeling that the sword saint was close. He could feel her presence, even though it had been dulled down for reasons he couldn't quite grasp. He glanced back to the river once more—nothing looked out of place. The water current flowed freely without disturbance. Prometheus dragged his mind back; he couldn't be getting distracted when he had a task at hand to achieve.
The sword saint still needed to be found.
Elaine felt her sense of time grow vague while submerged deep underwater. Had it been seconds, minutes, hours? She couldn't tell, but thinking of an hour felt too far-fetched.
All she knew was that she had been there long, fighting with everything left within her while her lungs burned with only a few more moments of life and the current dragged her body deeper.
One of her hands was tightly wrapped around the neck of the creature, the other pummelled it down with thunderous force. The beast thrashed around like a headless snake, black blood seeping from its body and into the currents.
Elaine watched the bubbles of oxygen escape its thrashing head and travel to the surface. She couldn't help but envy it. It was being struck with blows strong enough to crack stone, drowning deep within a cold river, and still had the leisure of releasing oxygen that her lungs so desperately burned for.
Both opponents were clearly very headstrong, and unwilling to accept death.
The beast felt the world around it tremble as each blow struck its head one after the other. Its pale hands moved swiftly, gripping the gauntlet of the human and pulling down with all its might. The results were futile—its hands felt weak and didn't even manage to budge her.
It switched tactics and began to strike at her face. The currents greatly reduced the destructive power behind each strike, but it persisted, throwing blow after blow while its body rapidly lost strength.
It was weak. It was dying. And it couldn't deny the reality that, at this rate, it was eventually going to die.
It could feel its icy blue eyes grow weak and distant. Unclear images filled its head—memories. Memories of it and its companion scaling through the food chain from the moment they had both been born as feral grades. Weak, insignificant creatures with countless others like themselves.
But they had strived, farther than most of their kind. Escaping death and growing stronger as a team. They were companions.
Until the human tore them apart. The lacerated body of the vine beast resurfaced in its mind, mutilated and stripped of its former glory. Now, it too was about to die.
The thought of death didn't scare it. It was an inevitable truth to their kind, as mana beasts died all the time. But it knew, deep within itself, that if its eyes were going to go cold and lifeless, so would the human's.
It began to stir the mana reserved in its core. Rather than circulate it through its body, it gathered all of it back to its source.
The core within its body grew radiant, like a miniature sun planted inside the creature. It grew bright, then brighter, until it was bright enough for the sword saint to notice the anomaly coming from its body.
A section of its torso shone with blue light.
Immediately, she let go.
She turned her back to the beast and swam away with all the strength her arms could muster. She needed to get out of the water, but the armour that had grounded her as an advantage had now become her greatest liability.
Her head broke to the surface and her lungs gasped greedily for air. She pulled at the leather straps connecting her chest plate and knee pads; both pieces of armour descended deeper into the river, and her body became significantly lighter.
The force of the currents crashed against her battered and bruised body, but she persisted and swam against it. She didn't know how much time she had, seconds had passed at most.
The river bank slowly came into view. She was drawing closer, and the light behind her was growing brighter. She noticed two figures shouting at the bank of the river, urging her to swim faster.
Vivian and Prometheus.
What were they doing here? She questioned, but her mind couldn't dwell on it for long.
The distance between her and the river bank had grown short. A few more strokes and she was done. She pushed through, parting the currents that tried to drag her back towards doom.
One more stroke and she was done. She could see the outstretched hands of Vivian and Prometheus.
Hope settled in her chest. Panic slowly faded from her eyes.
She had made it.
She reached out to grasp their hands—
When they all heard it.
The distinct sound of shattered glass.
And what came after…
was the detonation of a cold sun